Monday, July 20, 2009

Natural Dyeing

Brazilwood, copper, blueberries, turmeric, broom, onion skins, madder root, logwood...Summer is such a wonderful time to do natural dyeing...everything dries quickly in the sun and it's a great activity to do outside (if you have the right equipment...camp stove, large pots...).

Here are some of our latest dyeing projects. In our opinion, the best natural dyeing supplies and info. come from Griffin Dyeworks.

We are learning that depending on the weather, the fabric, the water, and the batch of natural dye, colors can vary! For instance, dyeing with frozen blueberries works better for us than fresh blueberries, but sometimes turns more blue/gray than lavender. Very pretty, either way. Brazilwood might turn cotton peach, silk ribbon pink or burgundy, and velvet fuschia!

No matter what, dyeing with natural ingredients is always fun and easy to do as a family. Waiting to see what color appears is part of the fun!

15 comments:

What beautiful and vibrant colours you achieved. It inspires me to get out my pots and wool out, collect some interesting dye materials and get dyeing whilst summer is still here. I must try frozen blueberries!

BEAUTIFUL colors!! - I see you don't use indigo - how do you achieve those gorgeous blue colors? - and do you by chance know about a method to dye with indigo NOT using those terribly chemicals?I found this site - http://www.aurorasilk.com/ - where theres a tutorial using a vermentation method. Have you any experiences?

Lovely colors! I love that the dyeing process is so mysterious - as it should be (though frustrating if you need something a certain color). Several years ago, my mother taught me about dyeing home-spun yarn. It was an absolutely wonderful experience. One that I would love to repeat again and again - strings of yarn strung over every chair and shower rod!

Thank you, everyone, for the nice comments! Mona, we haven't done indigo at home, but we did dye with it recently at a dye & fiber retreat. Griffin Dyeworks sells indigo crystals which makes it easy to do at home, in case you are interested. It's also the best way to get green (do broom or kamala or turmeric first for yellow, then dip in indigo to get green). I'm not familiar with the term vermentation. I'll have to look it up. I'll do chemical dyeing at workshops (Deb Menz is great and comes to SOAR some years), but not at home. :) --Jennifer

What a wonderful post, Jennifer! I am about to do natural silk sying with a local handwork group. I wonder if you have any resources to share with me. I know that some natural dying can be difficult and use toxic material. Do you have a favorite book to recommend? Thanks for the inspiration!

Hello onegoldensun! I have pretty much all of the books out there on natural dyeing. They are all great, but honestly, I refer to the booklet that comes with every order from Griffin Dyeworks whenever I have questions or need to look something up. I highly recommend ordering from them, keeping their booklet, and use them as a resource if you have questions. Bjo and John are the owners and they are very nice people! There is also a natural dyeing group on Ravelry, full of wonderful people if you need help or ideas. Good luck!